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Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Make a (local) pizza!

It’s one of the simplest (and most fun!) ways to enjoy a collaborative meal. Recently, I had a friend in town who used to be my cooking buddy in college so we decided to relive those wonderful memories and make our own homemade pizza for dinner. My local food fodder must have sunk into their psyches because she and my roommate had purchased all of the veggies for our pizza from the local farmers’ market. Along with the locally grown Jersey tomatoes, they found some delicious yellow squash, zucchini, fresh mozzarella, plus local basil and rosemary. We got so caught up in the cooking and eating that we forgot to take pictures!

Here are some tips on how to make a more sustainable pizza:

It’s easier than it sounds to make your own pizza dough, but we also found a great organic whole wheat option at Whole Foods, and in a pinch, sometimes you can even buy fresh dough from your local pizzeria. Tomatoes are finally in season, and Heidi at 101 Cookbooks has a 5-minute tomato sauce recipe, so check that out for a local pizza sauce. You can pick up fresh veggies at the farmers market, as well as locally produced farmstead cheeses. Remember, cheese from pastured cows is higher in omega 3s (read on more for pasture raised benefits from Sustainable Table). If you’re really ambitious, you can make the cheese yourself! Check out the New England Cheesemaking Company website for a kit to make your own homemade mozzarella or ricotta. Fresh local herbs (rosemary, basil etc) are a great addition. We all agreed that they made a big difference for flavoring the veggies.

Here’s how we cooked our pizza: First, we sauteed the veggies in olive oil and rosemary and then set them aside. Next, we stretched out the pizza dough across a cookie sheet and brush it with with a thin layer of olive oil. Finally, we added the pizza sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. It cooked in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes and then we added the sauteed veggies to cook for additional 5 minutes.

I had so much fun sharing this great meal with my friends that I thought it would be fun to have this experience with the Eat Well Guide field team. Tonight, Chelsea and I will be cooking our own local pizzas with the help of our fabulous New York City interns and externs. On the menu is margarita pizza, pear gorgonzola and walnut pizza, and sweet potato rosemary.